Well I bought my son a rossi youth model single shot 243 today. After talking with different people and taking everything you guys said into consideration I feel that this was probably the best fit for him. I am very excited about this coming season, more for him than me. It's been a dream of mine for a long time to have my son shoot his first deer and experience the joy of his first kill with him and hopefully this year it will become a reality. I appreciate all of your opinions and advice and know that they did play a big part in my decision. I will be sure to keep you all posted on how he's shooting and hopefully be able to post a picture of his first deer come Oct. Thanks again!!........BN1

Congratulations BurnNurse1....now you get to decide on what grain of .243 shells your Son is going to shoot! [&:] [;)]

I believe the heaviest you can get is 100 grain shells?My Daughter uses the Remington 100 grain Core-Lokts which is around $14.00 or a little higher,I use the Hornady "Custom" 100 grain shells that are over $25.00 a box of 20 shells.Whatever you decide on "Good Luck" Hunting this Deer Season!

Sounds Great BurnNurse1......I hope your doing fine and well in your area with the Hurricane passing through Louisiana?I have an Aunt that lives in the Metarie (spelling?) area and they had to rebuild their house after Katrina hit. [:(]

I'm 28 yrs old and have had my .243 ruger since I was 12. I've shot 30-30, 30-06,.308, M1, 270, 270 WSM, 355H&M, 300WSM, 7mm. But, I will tell you this. For carrying in the woods, exit hole, accuracy, long range capability, youth rifle, weight; you can't beat the .243. I still use it for the brunt of my hunting. For some reason I just keep grabbing this rifle on my way out the door instead of everything else in my cabinet. I can tack nails with this gun and at long ranges too. The recoil is next to nothing and you can quickly acquire the target after firing. Still-hunting or stalking with this gun, you don't even know its there. As long as you stress accuracy over "knocking em down with a shoulder shot" you won't regret the damage a 100 grain nosler ballistic can do on thin skinned game like whitetail. You shouldn't ruin meat with shoulder shots anyways!!! Put those brush guns away boys and get yourself a .243, your son won't regret it for years to come. Of course I wouldn't take this gun elk hunting though!![:D][:D]

"I enjoy and become completely immersed in the challenge and the increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It�s a return to fundamentals that I distinctly feel are basic and right"-F.B.

Well, I took little man out the other day and let him shoot his gun for the first time. On his first outing I really tried to focus on getting him acclimated to trigger squeeze, target acquisition with the scope, loading and unloading and most importantly the safety switch. I wasn't all that concerned with him hitting the Bulls eye everytime, but just really wanted him to get familiar with the gun and its recoil. He did a good job shooting considering this is his first high powered rifle. We are going to go out and focus a little more on proper shot placement on our next outing, but he's doing well..